Mad dps powerhouse 2h build

THIS BUILD bringed back the joy to play as a barb to me. I have seen other builds, but based on really good weapons and gear, or crazy high IAS (before the nerf). Back in the day, I gave up hope on my barb, since I was obligued to sword and board, and got no money.
I changed the build a little to suit my needs instead of Wrath of the Berserker I use Earthquake (The Mountain's Call) and Ancient Spear (Dread Spear) in the place of the furious charge. When I see a rare pack I just earthquake+ignore pain, they melt and keep me at full health, If anybody try to run... I hook them back.
I loved the build its great for the 2 handed lovers! if you invest a little on crit, the big numbers start poping everywhere!! +1 to you good sir!!

I'm glad you like it Interesting modification. How did you find the lack of aoe work out for you?

I have 22k dps, 38% crit, 312 crit damage, 50k hp, 6,5k armor and ~500 res without wc. And my gear is worth like ~3 milion. I can do a2 with eyes closed, tank everything (even molten/plaued/arcane) and kill packs in few second if i pop up wotb.

This build is total nonsense to me. I just don't see why i should drop so much of my defense in order to cheese play in a3? I bet you die there A LOT and kitting single pack for 3 minutes.

I have the same and gear for sword and board spec as well. As I've mentioned, I used to do sword and board until I realize I can already breeze through everything in this game. After that gearing so I can survive better becomes kinda pointless.

The whole point of this 2h spec is to HAVE FUN! (It's a game, remember) And sword and board, while easy to play, is very slow and inefficient in terms of farming (sure, with wotb u can kill elite so fast but you still take a while to kill normal pack while I can kill whole white pack in one hit with a 2 hander).

Yes I do die a lot, at first. It takes some getting used to, because you cannot just stand and tank in plague/arcane/molten anymore (I could if I just pick up my shield, but then it gets pretty old real quick). After a while you get used to avoiding damage and survive a lot longer. No, I do not kite elite for 3 minutes because barely anything still stands after Wotb wears off.

This build is NOT for those who want the path of least resistance in progressing through the game. It's about having fun doing tons of damage for a change. It can also farm lower content much more effectively (I one shot through almost everything in act2). If you want the best way to not die and have highest chance to progress, go sword and board. Playing 2h is a gamble that they die before you do.

Heck, if you like sword and board so much, you can even do it with this build. Swap out bash for frenzy, ruthless and weapon master passives for armor ones and you should be good to go, except that now you're doing 55% more damage than you used to.

Sweet. I've always been partial towards 2H barbs (as opposed to DW, or even S&B). I'm levelling my first barb (4th character), so I'm hoping to find a good 2H (don't use the AH) so I can give this build a go, looks like a lot of fun.

I enjoy my tactics much more
1. Make friends
2. Get dps up to 35k
3. Let monk friend run in first
4. Pop WOTB jump to 80k dps and kill everything
5. ?????
6. Profit

OT I am enjoying 2h dps but like I said since I hate single player games I almost never play alone and therefore don't have to worry as much about defensive stats.

Using this build my 40k dps jumps to 61k when fully buffed (which is up 100% of the time). This allow me to 1 shot almost every mobs in act 2 and defensive stat becomes much less of a concern cz dead stuff cannot do damage :P. Against elites I just pop wotb+ignore pain and my dps goes up to 150k and can pretty much kill elites before ignore pain wears off.

I find that 2h barb tend to not scale really well for 3-4 players though. With 4 players the mob hp becomes so big you can't effectively 2-3 shot them anymore unless your party are all focusing them down. With more players (especially with range players who doesn't help you tank) I had to play a bit more defensive or I will die a lot.

700 resis and i die to fast in act2 my armor is low and hp is 30k
tested the earthquke instead of ignore pain to farm act1 and works awesome, i think its the best burst in the game when u use it under wotb

God I love running over entire packs with charge! Again, kudos on the build, was the breath of fresh air my barb needed.

Only thing that kinda bothers me in this build is when you go in "dry", ie. no rage. It takes a bit to build up.

I like the Vanguard idea! If I had thought of ME earlier I surely would've named this thread "Vanguard barb 2h build"

I managed to clear entire act3 with this build, so it's definitely doable. You have to play a bit defensively, and more vit and res definitely helps! Sounds like your gear is almost there yourself, just keep trying.

Having no rage can be a pain, but then again you only does 25% less damage as oppose to many other build that need a whole time to set up (and surely a few charges will bring your rage pool back to full again).

One problem that I kept running into, however, is the furious charge animation stuck. You are completely immobile for a good 1 second or so after you land your charge, so sometimes when charge becomes buggy and stop short, extra charge (no pun intended) for no reason, or simply just bad positioning from my part I can land in the middle of arcane sentry and fall dead. Also sometimes against some combo I find that it's better to be a bit more patient and save your charge for when you need to get out of jail or only when you know it will get refresh, as being caught with charge off cd can be a pain sometimes.

700 resis and i die to fast in act2 my armor is low and hp is 30k
tested the earthquke instead of ignore pain to farm act1 and works awesome, i think its the best burst in the game when u use it under wotb

No doubt. But IP is simply too good for a short burst window / health regain in act2+ imho.

Switched my blue hammer for a rare polearm. Still slow attackspeed (ie. hard hitting charge), tho i do miss the 10 % crit. It had a socket and str + vit tho, so a nice upgrade. I have ditched Weapons Master for Bloodthirst tho. Also considering Brawler, but when there are lots of enemies... they kinda die instantly lol.

God I love running over entire packs with charge! Again, kudos on the build, was the breath of fresh air my barb needed.

Only thing that kinda bothers me in this build is when you go in "dry", ie. no rage. It takes a bit to build up.

I like the Vanguard idea! If I had thought of ME earlier I surely would've named this thread "Vanguard barb 2h build"

I managed to clear entire act3 with this build, so it's definitely doable. You have to play a bit defensively, and more vit and res definitely helps! Sounds like your gear is almost there yourself, just keep trying.

Having no rage can be a pain, but then again you only does 25% less damage as oppose to many other build that need a whole time to set up (and surely a few charges will bring your rage pool back to full again).

One problem that I kept running into, however, is the furious charge animation stuck. You are completely immobile for a good 1 second or so after you land your charge, so sometimes when charge becomes buggy and stop short, extra charge (no pun intended) for no reason, or simply just bad positioning from my part I can land in the middle of arcane sentry and fall dead. Also sometimes against some combo I find that it's better to be a bit more patient and save your charge for when you need to get out of jail or only when you know it will get refresh, as being caught with charge off cd can be a pain sometimes.

Yes. Charge is truly godlike for getting rage. The "dry" times is mostly when i have F'd up and died, and i am returning with no rage and no normal mobs to gain rage from.

But yeah, it is definately nice not needing rage for you attacks.

Bugged charge? Sounds even more like mass effect

Also noticed that if you are slowed when you charge, you charge in slow motion. No control of your character till you reach your destination. And mobs will hit you. That hurts, so always be on the lookout for slowing mobs.

Also mobs that leave "puddles" when they die can really eat through my health. Like those poison constructs in act 2. Charge through a group of them, one shot them, and watch your HP dwindle rapidly

Currently I try to get gear that improves my survival as well as strength - I still have a few pieces without AR for example. Oh, and grab crit chance / crit damage whenever I can.

All in all, you need some situational awareness. Still much better than my DH, where I had to keep track of the same stuff, as well as every ranged projectile

I do love the feeling of high damage and still decent durability. It is a lovely play style. And oh did I laugh when i literally 2 shot the warden earlier

Also noticed that if you are slowed when you charge, you charge in slow motion. No control of your character till you reach your destination. And mobs will hit you. That hurts, so always be on the lookout for slowing mobs.

One time, I got knocked by fire chains mob and decided to charge right back. I watched as my character slowly charge along the entire length of fire chains.... needless to say what arrived at the destination was no longer a barb but a bag of exploding flesh..

The crit/critdmg really helps out nicely. I bought a few upgrades and now I can pump my dps up to 46k unbuffed and a whopping 72k buffed. Problem is now my vit is really low.... need to get it back somehow.

Just wanted to throw in a message before i head to bed. Been grinding stuff all day. Joined a pal of mine (monk tank) on act 2 farm, and it went smooth. Later on i joined said friend in a public game, act 3, tower of the cursed -- > Azmodan. A couple of deaths, but thats what you get Full group, and I didnt feel like i was a drage or anything.

Also, Izkatu (in the same group)... Man, i didnt not stop charging for even one second. Went by easy as nothing.

Single player:
Act 1 is a joke. Poping Up berserker and facerolling elites without any problems.
Act 2 get a bit harder because of some problems in my gear (just need a bit more HP and resists/damage reduction). I passed 1/2 in Act 2 and died maybe 3-4 times so far cleaning all places.

I've played around with modifying this build a bit more. Testing this against other 2h build (like slam build). This build still gives flat out the best dps you could ever have (for those who say you have better dps in tank spec, that's from your gear and i assure you if you swap to this build your dps will increase even more).

Only problem I have is that the burst damage is slightly inferior with 3-2-1 build with both wotb and eq. I tried to work in EQ to my skills but it was hard to drop any. Dropping IP is out of question because it offers you so much survivability. I tried swapping out charge for EQ and rely mostly on cleave to do aoe damage, however it turns out cleave takes much longer to clear trash and it doesn't quite do as much damage in single target anymore.

It turns out that with the flat 55% damage plus, EQ alone without wotb is mostly enough to kill any elite pack (provided you're sufficiently geared for the content). If you think about it, 55% is only half wotb+eq combo, which is usually overkill anyway. EQ also works nicely that it doesn't consume rage (with rune) so it doesn't take a bit to ramp up the damage as wotb would. EQ also has shorter cd so you can burn elites faster, only downside is losing cc immunity from wotb, but with EQ you can just land EQ and run like crazy as mobs literally melt in 3 seconds.

TL;DR - Dropped wotb for EQ gives you much better burst, costs no rage, and shorter cooldown. Nice modification to this build.

Unfortunatly this build sucks compared to frenzy/sidarm and revenge/prov with wotb up in a revenge spec i can revenge spam for 400+ plus aoe.. and altought the charge does give some pretty nice crits and with the cd reduction is quite nice.. but without the heal this build will not allow you to clear the game.

Unfortunatly this build sucks compared to frenzy/sidarm and revenge/prov with wotb up in a revenge spec i can revenge spam for 400+ plus aoe.. and altought the charge does give some pretty nice crits and with the cd reduction is quite nice.. but without the heal this build will not allow you to clear the game.

Did you even try it?

Healing is what you need when just stand there and take it... You dont in this build. Thats what you have IP + WotB for.